1. Field of the Invention
In general, the invention relates to signal cancellation in a transceiver. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and system to cancel the transmitted signal in a homodyne duplex transceiver. This signal is an unwanted source of receiver degradation; thus, canceling it out results in a significant performance advantage.
2. Discussion of Background
In a known transceiver without signal cancellation, a single antenna is shared by the transmitter portion and receiver portion while simultaneously transmitting and receiving on the same frequency. See FIG. 1.
The known transceiver 100 includes a controller 110, a frequency source 120, a transmitter modulator 130, a variable gain amplifier (VGA) 140, a power amplifier (PA) 150, a detector 160, a circulator 170, an antenna 180, an antenna connector 185 and a receiver 190. Controller 110 is a microprocessor. The frequency source 120 is a frequency agile synthesizer. Detector 160 can measure the power output by the transmitter modulator 130.
The output of transmitter modulator 130 is calibrated using an accurate power sensor (not shown) at the antenna connector 185 by adjusting the gain setting of VGA 140, and then storing the gain setting of VGA 140 and the detector reading that produced the desired output power level(s). The transmitter modulator 130 and receiver 190 operate on the same frequency, and thus the performance of receiver 190 is adversely affected by the energy from transmitter modulator 130 that is reflected back from antenna 180, which is non-ideal in its implementation. If all radio frequency (RF) components in the transceiver modulator 130 are precisely 50 ohms, for example, then all energy from transmitter modulator 130 applied to antenna 180 is radiated, and no energy reflects back towards receiver 190. Because an ideal 50-ohm implementation is not realistically achievable, receiver 190 will experience degraded performance due to the energy reflected from the transmitter modulator 130 by antenna 180, relative to the weaker signal sent to receiver 190 detected by the detector.
The signal level reflected back from antenna 180 is, for example, typically between 15 to 25 dB below the signal from the transmitter modulator 130 and radiated by antenna 180. The energy level of the signal reflected back to receiver 190 can be, for example, as high as 100 mW. This can cause signal overload of the sensitive components of receiver 190, resulting in degradation of the sensitivity and range of receiver 190. For the case of a homodyne receiver, this can cause a large direct current (DC) (i.e., 0 Hz) component.